Boost for young rowers with Coles aboard

The young rowers of the Whangarei Rowing Club couldn't have had better advice ahead of an important competitive season with former World Champion and Olympian Nicola Coles (pictured) jumping aboard - literally.
Coles, an ex-Whangarei Girls High School student, spent time on Saturday coaching her former school's top under-18 crew - among others - before catching up with family at Ruakaka later.
The U-18 coach Amanda Puddle said the rowers all got a lot out of the session: "She touched on a couple of technical areas to make the boat move faster, and gave them the benefit of a fresh set of eyes. At the level Nicola's competed at, that certainly helps."
The girls did a 5km race on Saturday against the novice crews and then had Coles aboard as the crew's stroke for a couple of sessions. "They jumped at the opportunity," Puddle said.
And who wouldn't?
Coles and Juliette Haigh finished sixth in the pair's final at Athens 2004 before improving one spot four years later to take a fifth place in Beijing this year but she said the pair's win at the 2005 World Championships would go down as their biggest achievement. "I definitely think we went as fast as we were capable. Obviously I think we could have won gold so I'm slightly disappointed with that result but certainly I look back on my career with an immense amount of satisfaction," she said.
Coles announced her retirement from the sport after Beijing and is working as a part-time coach and coaching development officer for Rowing New Zealand. "I'm also doing some dressmaking because that's what I was trained in before I became a rower and I'm still quite passionate about both things. But if one of them should start taking over the other then that's fine too," she said.
Coles is something of an inspiration to young and older rowers. Unlike most elite athletes, she was a late starter in the sport.
A border at Lupton House in 1987 and 1988 while her family lived at Ruawai, she can't remember rowing ever being mentioned as a sport. "I didn't row at all at school. I didn't even know rowing existed back then. In fact, in Whangarei I don't think it did at that time and since then it's made a resurgence. It's good to see the club back and healthy again," the 36-year-old said.
It wasn't until she completed her tertiary studies that she took up the sport. "I was 23 and using the rowing machine at the gym a lot and enjoying that and thought I'd like to do something different and meet some new people. So I joined the North Shore Rowing club and it went from there."
The Whangarei Rowing Club had three novice eights out on the water at it's race day on Saturday _ a rare feat for the club.
It is hoping for success with its novice crews this year at senior level and in secondary school competition with the U-18 girls crew, the hottest prospects.
The crew of Ashley Teal, Toni Green, Michelle McCabe, Mel Hamilton and cox Amanda Pemberton, that competes both as a quad and a coxed four, are aiming for podium finishes next year's Maardi Cup.